A Life of Love

Sunshine

"You should cut back on the antennas, vod," Rex said.

Cody shook his head. "Never. It helps with communications."

Their beskar armor got finished and they were testing it out in the Tano's house. Rex, in the full suit of armor, put on the helmet and adjusted the heads-up display while saying, "Well I didn't realize you'd have three of 'em."

"It's the exact amount that's on my clone armor."

"Yeah, but you also have a kriffin' cape now."

"You kept your skirt," retorted Cody.

Rex slowly took off his helmet, the air lock hissing softly as he did, and tucked it under his arm. "It's. A. Kama."

Cody rolled his eyes. "Call it what you want. It's still a skirt."

"Skirts aren't open in the front!"

Ahsoka came into the room wearing her beskar'gam and said, "Simmer down, boys. You aren't two years old anymore. And, Cody, you've seen what Rex can do to people who call his kama a skirt. He pummeled Fives into the ground more times than I care to count, so be nice to your brother, please."

Cody looked at Rex who had a small, evil smirk creeping across his face. Cody knew he could mess with his brother, but not to mess with his brother's wife. She could be quite scary when she needed to be. "Fine," he said.

"Good. Now, you two look very dashing in that armor of yours, so don't ruin the moment by beating each other up. I want you to shake hands and make up." Ahsoka placed a hand on her hip as she said that.

Rex gave her a really? look. "Seriously?"

"He's your brother. It's not like he's a random stranger."

Cody held out his hand, albeit a little reluctantly, and Rex took it. They shook hands and looked at Ahsoka. She rolled her eyes. "Since you clearly didn't mean it, you get to hug each other," she said enthusiastically.

Rex sighed and held out his arms in exasperation. Cody came close and their armor clunked against one another. Rex felt his brother's breath against his ear as Cody whispered, "Skirt."

Rex shoved Cody away and pounced on him. Cody landed on his back with a grunt. Ahsoka jolted in shock, but then she realized she shouldn't be surprised at the two of them. But then they really started to roughhouse. "Hey, no sparring in the house!" She yelled overtop the crashing that came when their armor clambered together.

Ahsoka sighed, annoyed, and knew the only way they'd stop is if one of them won. That would take a while. A long while.

~

At Dellah's Diner, after the small sparring match, Rex, Cody, and Ahsoka were finishing up their small lunch before their full day ahead of them. People were in almost every seat and the place was louder than usual. Of course this was their busiest time, lunch. It made sense.

"Are you gonna eat that?" Rex asked Ahsoka.

She slid the plate over to him a little bit. "Knock yourself out."

He stabbed a strip of nerf steak with his fork and stuck it into his mouth. Dellah came over to their table and asked, "Anything else? Refills?"

"I think we're good," said Ahsoka. "You guys look a little swamped today."

"You got that right. It normally wouldn't be a problem, but we're down a couple servers and our head chef is out as well. It's a bit hectic here..."

Determination spread across Ahsoka's face. "I can help. I can work with the money or something."

Dellah seemed to considered it. "...that would be helpful. I suppose, if you want to, you could help Ezlynn with handing people their food."

"Sure," Ahsoka said as she stood up and looked at Rex for confirmation. He nodded and she smiled in acknowledgment before walking over to the Twi'lek. "Just show me what to do."

"Follow me, darling."

Ahsoka and Dellah walked off towards the kitchen area and left Rex and Cody at the table. "So," Rex said as he finished off the rest of the food on Ahsoka's plate. "How's your armor?"

"It's fine. Why?"

He shrugged. "Just trying to start a conversation."

"That's a lousy conversations starter."

"Oh? We're conversing."

Cody pursed his lips and paused for a moment. "I swear, Rex."

Rex chuckled before his comlink chirped, cutting off what he was about to say. He put his wrist close to his mouth and answered it. "Rex here."

"Rex, it's Fox."

"Fox. It's been a while. How're you doing?"

"I'm all right, thanks. I'm on my way to Mandalore to pick up Senator Amidala and bring her back to Coruscant. I'm leaving a day or so early because... well... it would be nice to catch up with you, Cody, and the others."

"Yeah, of course. ETA?"

"Roughly two hours."

"Okay. Anything else?"

"Nope."

"All right, I'll see you soon." Rex signed off and looked up at Cody. "He sounded stressed."

Cody sighed and drained the last of his caf. "He's always stressed. He's doing his best, but he always feels like his best isn't good enough."

"But he has the entire Coruscant Guard to help him. Thorn, Thire, Stone, Hound. Riyo Chuchi even."

"Yeah... I feel bad. Wish I could do more for him."

Rex looked down and nodded. He looked back up. "Come on. Let's go tell Ahsoka and leave."

The two brothers stood up and Cody went to get another cup of caf to go and Rex found Ahsoka. He told her what was happening and she said for them to go. She didn't want to interfere with their bonding moments. Rex gave her a quick peck on the lips goodbye before casually waving bye to Ezlynn who handed Cody his caf.

In the speeder, Rex glanced over and saw Cody's cup had a long string of words on it. Rex smirked. "That's a long name."

Cody looked panicked before he calmed down almost instantly. "It's not... It's not my name."

"Oh?"

He turned the cup so Rex could read it. Rex read it out loud. " 'Sunshine. Because of the little sun spokes on your helmet.' She calls you sunshine? Force, Cody, ask her out already."

"No. I don't—"

"Yeah yeah yeah. You don't like her. But your eyes say otherwise. But fine, I'll stop bothering you about it."

"Thank you. Now can we go?"

"Fine," Rex said as he started up the engine.  But Cody definitely had a crush on Ezlynn, otherwise he wouldn't have blushed at the mention of her name. He forced himself to stop thinking about it and started to drive.